News

Tue, 14 Jun 2011

Chelsea's Here to Play Here to Stay Hong Kong

HONG KONG - Chelsea Football Club will be coming to the Far East, playing first in Kuala Lumpur and then Bangkok on 21 and 24 July respectively before arriving in Hong Kong for the Barclays Asia Trophy 2011 tournament on 27 and 30 July.

The Blues' last visit to Asia was in 2008 and the team is delighted with the opportunity to meet their fans in Hong Kong as well as to play against the 2010/11 champions of the Hong Kong First Division League Kitchee on the first day of the tournament and also one of the other Premier League teams on the second match day. The event will take place over two match days.

Ron Gourlay, Chief Executive of Chelsea FC said: "Here to Play, Here to Stay demonstrates that we are committed to the development of the game in the region. Chelsea is a long-term partner of Asian Football Confederation on the Vision Asia project. We are keen to help in this region and to invest.

"We are pleased to announce that we will be working with ProEvents on the Blue Pitch, our grass-root football development project in Asia. Blue Pitch Hong Kong is our first in Asia and there will be many more.

"We are very pleased with the progress of Blue Pitch Hong Kong and when we come here with the team in July, I am sure it will encourage more kids to join us to learn football in the Chelsea way," Gourlay added.

Leslie Santos, Technical Director of Chelsea Soccer School (Hong Kong), said: "We are thankful to Chelsea FC for their support for the past years. Not just for the kids, support received from Chelsea is also beneficial to our professional coaches. All our students are happy, passionate about their football and are enjoying learning their football skill in the Chelsea way. We are especially excited about the team coming to Hong Kong for the Barclays Asia Trophy 2011. Our students will be looking forward to meeting the players. While the first team is here to play, we are here to stay!"

"ProEvents is delighted to introduce the Chelsea Soccer School to Hong Kong! Blue Pitch Hong Kong is a unique and unprecedented in its way which represents Chelsea's colour and is the only soccer school that has its own pitch and changing facilities. It gives us so much pleasure seeing many young kids enjoy learning to play football every week at this unique venue. We express our sincere thanks to the Club for their trust to be their official partner to develop this project," said Paul J Kam, Chairman of ProEvents Group, who is the sole and exclusive tour organiser of the Chelsea Asia Tour 2011 and partner of the Chelsea Blue Pitch project in Asia.

Chelsea's Here to Play Here to Stay campaign will also feature a fans' communication programme encouraging all football fans to make contact with Chelsea by completing a specially-designed Chelsea postcards and then drop them into the Chelsea post boxes. Those who filled in the postcard will have a chance to win a trip to London with match tickets to watch Chelsea in action at Stamford Bridge. The postcards and post boxes can be found at Blue Pitches here, selected adidas outlets, Harbour Grand Hotel and Hong Kong Stadium on match day or simply fill in the form online atwww.chelseafc.com/OnTour.

Tickets for the Barclays Asia Trophy 2011 will be available for purchase in Hong Kong through Cityline at www.cityline.com or telephone booking hotline at +852 2111 5333 (10:00 am to 8:00 pm daily).